Having a blast with my Breton. I've gone at it pretty organically, just trying things out and focusing on whatever's most fun/useful/compatable with how I'm playing the game. Sitting at around Lv15, now. Highest skills are Conjuration/Restoration/One-Hand/Enchantment/Alchemy with some Archery thrown in.

Most of my perks are in Conjuration, which has led directly to my quick leveling in Enchantment. One of the perks automatically casts soul trap on anything killed with a bound weapon. Charge in with a conjured blade in one hand, a ward in the other. Also fun; Dual-wielding bound blades.

Edit Add: For Monty Python amusement value, stealth archery is great. At one point, I saw a dude with an arrow sticking out of the side of his head, like, "Did you hear something?"

(Funny Skyrim Moment that Reminds me of: Big cluster of a fight, I'm finally taken out by an archer after a nearby mage set me on fire. Show death scene of my lazily sliding down the side of a mountain, on fire, with an arrow sticking RIGHT out of my ass.)

Yeah, giants will smash your face. Trolls are pretty nasty, too. And those sabretooth cat looking things. Also got mauled by ice wraiths a few times.

I restarted now that I have an idea how everything works, trying to vaguely recreate the old Withhunter kits -- Stealth/Archery/Conjuration. Spells can be kind of a pain to mix with stealth (Loud and flashy), so throwing in some Alchemy and getting poison-happy. Add that to the Breton magical resistance and hoping to be pretty nasty for opposing mages to deal with.

I just created a new guy (holy crap, you don't *have* to go with Rolof. Didn't know that). I have a Sneaky Archer and a pure destruction mage, so this guy will probably be melee... but I can't decide what else to include for his build. Rocking the Greatsword right now, and light armor, but I might go to heavy armor since I don't see this guy sulking around a whole lot. I think I need some sort of range to bring down a dragon, but I'm torn between archery and magic, since I have chars who do both already.

Sarlacc, on comparing .NET to Soccer: And why not? It's a bunch of people running around in circles, feigning pain, and never scoring.

I playing an Imperial. He only wields one handed maces laced with poisons and uses restoration spells in the other. Wears light armor. Makes all of his own weapons and armor. He dabbles in enchanting. Is addicted to home brews that makes him feel better and stronger.

Other than that he loves ground hog day. He will relive a violent death multiple times before getting the picture.

"If we lose ... this place will be a Carnival of Stupidity." FlyingGreg

Nice timing, Matt; this is the best 7-month game release window in the history of gaming, from Battlefield 3 to Mass Effect 3, with the "meat" in between the buns consisting of Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Aliens: Colonial Marines. I'm probably missing another very good game in there somewhere, too.

Man I cant wait to play this!!! I know if I got it now it would be installed and I would play it maybe 30 minutes a week, Im going to wait till Jan/Feb till it comes on sale for Game of the Year and when the wife heads out for 6-8 weeks to visit family, but yeah, Im going to have to take time off work, many of you will have finished it, but thats ok

RolandDeschain wrote:Nice timing, Matt; this is the best 7-month game release window in the history of gaming, from Battlefield 3 to Mass Effect 3, with the "meat" in between the buns consisting of Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Aliens: Colonial Marines. I'm probably missing another very good game in there somewhere, too.

Yep, don't forget MW3 (as much as people like to hate on it) and Saints Row 3 as well.

RolandDeschain wrote:Nice timing, Matt; this is the best 7-month game release window in the history of gaming, from Battlefield 3 to Mass Effect 3, with the "meat" in between the buns consisting of Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Aliens: Colonial Marines. I'm probably missing another very good game in there somewhere, too.

You're also clearly missing female attention.

...but I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

Doug Baldwin took a hit to the head when he was younger and now can't remember how to drop a football. - SomersetHawk

Whew. Meandering about indecisively up north, I stumbled across an ancient Dwemer ruin. Nearly got myself killed by a few active Dwemer spheres... and then it got worse. Delving in deeper and deeper, I came upon a Falmer city. Falmer are in no way impressed by my sneaking abilities. And they have giant poison-spitting earwigs for pets.

SOMEHOW survived that, and made it through to the REALLY big Dwemer construct. The result of -that- battle was a last-ditch shout to buy myself time to Run. The Hell. Away. Found a lift back to ground level for a thankful bout of rethinking my life.

Killed my first dragon at level 9 (outside of the dragon the storyline almost throws you at) with my archerish (although my melee skills are rising MUCH faster than my archery skills, even though I try to use my bow the most) Redguard. I was just casually strolling from Falkreath to Rorikstead and the bugger showed up and I couldn't fight him, so I did what any true Redguard would do and ran like a little girl... The fort I was going to make a heroic last stand in (where I'd at least have cover and no trees) happened to be home to a group of Apprentice Fire Mages. Who did minimal damage to the dragon but were great decoys. I had the high ground on the mages so when the dragon started mowing through the, I just rained down arrows from above.

Out of mercy, I let some of the surviving mages live. It was the considerate thing to do.

Sarlacc, on comparing .NET to Soccer: And why not? It's a bunch of people running around in circles, feigning pain, and never scoring.

I had a dragon go full R-Tard on me, just today. It attacked while I was out strolling around in the courtyard of the Mage's College at Winterhold. It swooped at me a few times on the bridge, I'm shooting arrows... catching frost breath in the face. (One of the mage instructors kept standing there staring at me as it was going on, pissily asking what I thought I was doing.)

After a couple ineffective volleys, I said frick this and ran back into the courtyard. The dragon came down and -landed- in there, pissing off a handful of mage instructors. It did not last long.

The dragon skeleton is still there in the courtyard area, suffering from some wonky physics every time I enter the area.

Shooting arrows at dragons? What the hells wrong with you guys? I've been standing on mountain tops and let little guys think their all that. The dragon swoops by and I just stand there. I let him land then I pound him with poison covered Glass Mace. Power swing x 2, Heal w/ stamina increase, and repeat. You guys and you're silly arrows!

"If we lose ... this place will be a Carnival of Stupidity." FlyingGreg

I sneak in, take out someone with the first shot. Companion immediately goes all Leeroy Jenkins on me, and my options are to charge in and die as well, or say 'Okay, well frick him' and resume trying to pick them off one by one with the companion as a distraction. This usually results in the companions untimely demise as everything in the room just attacks the lone charging idiot.

And my poor dog... Meeko the Hound got in my line of fire and died from an arrow to the back of the head. Very sad.

I started with the Breton and have focused mainly on Destruction, conjuration, and one handed weapons. I strongly recommend this strategy. I'm crazy happy with this game. Only thing is the game kind of lags sometimes, anyone else have this happen to them?

So I started over 3 times, trying different things but after reading about the Breton I finally decided to go that route. I had always followed the rebel at the start but this time I followed the guard. After heading to the first town I picked up the quest for the golden claw, which was so much fun! Walking through the cave in the dark (I always play with the lights out) reminded me of the days of Daggerfall Im on normal level on the PC and maybe it was due to me only being level 2 but I had a tough time killing the spider and the undead guy at the end, but I got it done and picked up some nice loot.

I havent decided which one I will join yet, the stormcloaks or the empire, if at all... Im level 4 and have found so many hidden things, small caves or bandit camps its crazy! Im loving it!

Im going to concentrate mostly on destruction, I always play mages in games, the summon familiar is kinda cool so far, but from what I can tell I cant summon one and then use 2 other spells while the pet is out, I have to keep one hand free with that spell, if someone knows different let me know.

Ive picked up a few magical cloths, a ring, cloth helm and an apprentice robe that all help with my magika. SO far being level 4 Ive been able to skill up 3 times, twice into magika and once into health, Im still trying to understand the whole class skill abilities thing, my destruction is 29 right now and when its 30 I guess I can spec something new?

Im not one for reading strategy guides, not till Ive finished a game at least once, but being as this is still kind of a new game Im having a hard time finding much info online.

In short, I love this! I wish I had more time to play, and am looking forward to the 4 day weekend, even though I may only get to play for 10 hours at most with the holiday and things going on.

AshamanMat wrote:So I started over 3 times, trying different things but after reading about the Breton I finally decided to go that route. I had always followed the rebel at the start but this time I followed the guard. After heading to the first town I picked up the quest for the golden claw, which was so much fun! Walking through the cave in the dark (I always play with the lights out) reminded me of the days of Daggerfall Im on normal level on the PC and maybe it was due to me only being level 2 but I had a tough time killing the spider and the undead guy at the end, but I got it done and picked up some nice loot.

I havent decided which one I will join yet, the stormcloaks or the empire, if at all... Im level 4 and have found so many hidden things, small caves or bandit camps its crazy! Im loving it!

Im going to concentrate mostly on destruction, I always play mages in games, the summon familiar is kinda cool so far, but from what I can tell I cant summon one and then use 2 other spells while the pet is out, I have to keep one hand free with that spell, if someone knows different let me know.

Ive picked up a few magical cloths, a ring, cloth helm and an apprentice robe that all help with my magika. SO far being level 4 Ive been able to skill up 3 times, twice into magika and once into health, Im still trying to understand the whole class skill abilities thing, my destruction is 29 right now and when its 30 I guess I can spec something new?

Im not one for reading strategy guides, not till Ive finished a game at least once, but being as this is still kind of a new game Im having a hard time finding much info online.

In short, I love this! I wish I had more time to play, and am looking forward to the 4 day weekend, even though I may only get to play for 10 hours at most with the holiday and things going on.

If you're doing the breton route, I strongly recommend joining the mages college in winterhold around level 6 or 7. Most fun quests I've done so far, and get a lot of great magical items.

I'm playing a Dark Elf named Elric (as in 'of Melnibone'). I play the same way I did Oblivion - sneaking around, with a poisoned bow andburying anything that gets into melee range with a conflagration of fire.

The most challenging quest so far was delving into a Dwemer ruin to return a lexicon. I finally visited the Greybeards, but now I am goingto start climbing the ranks in the Thieves Guild, although the Dark Brotherhood has come calling a couple of times and I may go andtry to track them down.

My son is playing through as an Argonian and doing the Mage Guild quests. It is just as fun to watch his playthrough as it is to play myselfbecause his storyline/path through the game is so different.

Dark Brotherhood storyline is a lot of fun if you enjoy killing random people and big parts of the main storyline. It also is a really good way to get lots of gold after you finish it as each quest you do for them after the main quest nets around 1000 gold. Almost finished Thieves Guild too but I got the skeleton key for unbreakable pick locks and I'm saving it to try and find more epic stuff Definitely like the thief style with daggers and a bow, sneaking and one shotting people is fun. Just started a duel wielding warrior and although you cant sneak up on anything, it is a lot of fun to bash people twice and kill them.

I'm at level 22 and haven't even picked a side in the civil war, yet. Not a lot done on the main quest, either. Spending most of my time commuting back and forth between the Mage's college and the Bard's college, dropping accumulated crap off at the house in Whiterun. Had the dark elf girl at the Mage's college agree to marry me... then she didn't show up to the wedding. Bitch.

I did a free-form restart a while back -- No cheats, no loophole exploits (Anyone see that one where you have the Health-into-Mana spell in one hand and a healing spell in the other hand? Jeez), playing 'myself'... which turns out to be pretty close to Lawful Stupid. Amusingly, in this run, trying to be Lawful Stupid has already created a couple moral dilemmas. That's decent writing, right thar.

Anyway, I escaped Helgen with the Swedish Terrorist. He suggested I meet up with his sister. I'm thinking, 'Why the hell would I have any interest in doing THAT? I'm getting the frick out of here.'

I went west and ended up around Falkreath. Got drawn completely against my will into a quest where a demon prince forced me to skin a dude in order to remove a curse. My Lawful Stupid guy is probably a complete PTSD wreck, already.

My underdog sympathies have been utterly destroyed by a trip to Stormcloak central, where I came to the conclusion that the Nordic National Army is a bunch of racist Nazi bastard-faces. I was thinking of joining the Imperials, decided since I was headed that way that I'd just be a Bard instead. Less getting stabbed in that career, I thought.

I made my obligatory stop by Whiterun, "Hey, yeah, so there's dragons and stuff... What? HELP you? Oh, Jeez..."

I bumped the difficulty to keep things interesting (I'm not using Archery as much this time around, as it doesn't fit my personality nearly as well playing myself. I don't have the patience to sneak around that much. Evidenced by my last "sneak" build's habit of throwing out 'Hey, skeever-butt!!' voice shouts to attract attention).

On a stopover in Markarth I finally get to the cool bit: I come staggering out of Alva's house after nearly getting my head beat in, and I see the town watch running around screaming, shooting arrows into the sky. Hey! First random dragon! FWOOOSH, one swoops blowing fire all over the place. From the other direction, FWOOOSH, -another- dragon swoops blowing ice all over the place.

What.

Yep, two, count 'em, two dragons. After a loooooooong fight, I finally managed to take them out by hiding like a weiner in the mill and popping out to fire arrows at them. By that point, the city guard was more or less eradicated.

Markarth Town Watch: Now Hiring.

Riley12 wrote:I'm getting deeper into the Dark Brotherhood quests, but I've also stumbled upon some Daedric-related onesand want to continue those a bit more.

Hircine is a douche.

Re: Dark Brotherhood. I -accidentally- started that string, haha. I looked into Aventus, decided the kid was a little sociopath, but went to peek in on the Orphanage anyway when I was in the area. Now, that old lady was -definitely- an evil hag, but I still wasn't feeling the whole 'Kill people for money' vibe.

She still was pissing me off with the way she was treating the kids, so figured I'd just teach her a lesson. Unrelenting Force Shout! She stumbled into the hearth and freaking died. Whups.

I haven't played Skyrim since Saturday. I am eagerly looking forward to changing that at about 11 tonight (my flight gets in at 10, so I'm pretty much going straight to my PS3). Darn malware on my PC (does anyone know of a free malware remover?), I was going to put it on my laptop but that didn't happen with this dumb virus.

Sarlacc, on comparing .NET to Soccer: And why not? It's a bunch of people running around in circles, feigning pain, and never scoring.

I am not done with the game for my first char. but I made it to a point with the build where I am rushing to finish the game because it is not the very difficult. I upped the difficulty setting but I am too equipped. I am decked out in full dragon armor with my mace. I have almost + 80 one handed skill on my equipment an + 50 light armor. I maxed out one handed and light armor. I have lots of make restorations spells cheap and regen.

I think I spent to much time in the early stages leveling up blacksmithing and enchanting. It really made my guy overpowered. I take down dragons in two to three swings.

I think next char. will be a spell wielding nord that does uses no weapons.

"If we lose ... this place will be a Carnival of Stupidity." FlyingGreg